FIRES at two separate factories in Pakistan have left hundreds of people dead, many trapped and suffocated as they tried to escape the flames.

A Pakistani man mourns the death of relatives after a fire erupted in a garment factory in Karachi

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AT least 314 people have died in two separate factory fires in Pakistan.

A fire at a clothing factory in the southern city of Karachi killed 289 people. A blaze at a shoe factory in the eastern city of Lahore that also broke out last night killed 25 people.

Firefighter chief Ehtisham-ud-Din said most of the clothing factory deaths were caused by suffocation as people caught in the basement were unable to escape.

Dozens more were injured in the blazes and firefighters were still trying to subdue the Karachi blaze today.

Workers in Lahore told how their colleagues were trapped behind blocked exits and firefighters said one reason why the blazes were so deadly was that the buildings lacked clear escape routes.

Such safety issues are common throughout Pakistan, where buildings also lack emergency equipment like alarms and sprinklers and municipal rules are rarely enforced.

Pakistani television showed a video of the five-storey Karachi factory with flames leaping from top-floor windows and smoke billowing into the night sky. Firefighters could be seen pounding on the metal grates covering some of the windows and pulling out smoke-covered bodies.

Many of the workers were injured when they jumped from the burning building, said doctors at the Civil Hospital.

One was a 27-year-old pregnant woman who had to jump from the second floor and was suffering complications with her pregnancy, said hospital officials.

An injured factory worker, Mohammad Ilyas, speaking from the hospital, said he was working with about 50 other men and women on one of the floors when suddenly a fireball came from the staircase.

"I jumped from my seat as did others and rushed toward the windows, but iron bars on the windows barred us from escaping. Some of us quickly took tools and machines to break the iron bars," he said.

"That was how we managed to jump out of the windows down to the ground floor."

His leg was injured in the fall.

Others were not so lucky. An Associated Press reporter saw a charred body partially hanging out one of the factory's barred windows. It appeared the victim tried to escape but could not make it through the bars.

Senior police official Amjad Farooqi said: "There were no safety measures taken in the building design. There was no emergency exit. All the people got trapped."

In Lahore, the fire swept through a four-storey shoe factory and killed 25 people, some from burns and some from suffocation, said senior police officer Multan Khan. The factory was illegally set up in a residential part of the city.

It broke out when people in the building were trying to start their generator after the electricity went out. Sparks from the generator made contact with chemicals used to make the shoes, igniting the blaze.

Pakistan faces widespread blackouts and many people use generators to provide electricity for their houses or to run businesses.

One of the workers, Muhammad Shabbir, said he had been working at the factory for six months. He said all the chemicals and the generator were located in the garage, which was also the only way out of the building.

When the fire ignited, there was no way out. Mr Shabbir said he had just gone outside the factory when the fire started, but his cousin was severely burned and died at the hospital.

A firefighter at the scene, Numan Noor, said the reason most of the victims died was because the main escape route was blocked.

"The people went to the back side of the building but there was no access, so we had to make forceful entries and ... rescue the people."

Firefighters broke holes in the factory's brick walls to reach victims inside. At the morgue, bodies were lined up on a hallway floor, covered with white sheets.

Pakistan's prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf expressed shock and grief over the deaths in both cities.